Mind Games
by I.C. Weener
Summary: Oooooh, what's the plot twist gonna be this time?


" _I only have sullied love. There is no beautiful dream. I have nothing to give, for my beloved."_

\- Mar-Keys, "VANITY"

" _Thou shall not fall. Thou shall not die. Thou shall not fear. Thou shall not kill."_

\- G Tom Mac, The Lost Boys

* * *

The boat sped across the chopping black waters in frantic retreat, leaving a long white wake across the smog-clouded industrial river. The camouflaged rescue team huddled like shadows on the benches lining the small craft, never saying a word to one another.

Yuuhi was sitting in the back of the boat holding Chidori in his arms. His eyes were clenched shut, his mouth was locked in an expression of guilt, and his fingers were gently brushing the back of her motionless head. Silver moonlight shimmered off of her long black hair in ripples. The blanket wrapped around her was soaked with blood. A lone guard hiding in the basement escape route had almost killed Yuuhi by putting a slug in his back, but Chidori had pushed him out of the way at the last moment so she could take his place.

Shouta sat on the bench in front of them staring blankly into the night. The seat beside him was empty. The rest of the team sat on the sides of the boat in silence.

Yuuhi's head sank in grief. Tears moistened the corners of his eyes as he shivered. His arms were like solid steel beams wielded around Chidori's bundled form.

Steam lightly drifted out from under her nose. Her long waves of hair tickled Yuuhi's neck as she weakly adjusted her position and sighed. The bullet had only struck her shoulder, turning her arm into a mess but leaving her alive.

Her mind was numb and dizzy, still fading in and out of sleep as the speeding boat skimmed across the river. The events of the past day haunted her dreams. Her grandparents being gunned down. Kagami making her use her powers on some sort of old fossil. An oxygen mask being lowered over her face while an operating lamp blinded her vision. Yuuhi lifting her up in his arms while his voice whispered that everything was going to be all right.

She murmured in half-sleep with her head propped her head under his chin. Her nose twitched as the passing waves lightly sprayed on her face. Her gold eyes twinkled dimly in the dark, as if the water was restoring her strength bit by bit. She gazed up at her protector with a tired look that was part curiosity, and part dread.

"Where's Touya?" she asked with a soft but groggy voice. "I heard you talking to him on your radio."

"He stayed behind," Yuuhi barely managed to choke out. "He wanted us to get away."

Chidori's gaze remained drowsily fixed on Yuuhi. She worried about Shouta, she worried about Aya, but she worried about him the most. Her pale graceful fingers reached out from her blanket and touched him on the cheek.

The longer her eyes stared up into Yuuhi's, the more she felt drawn toward him. The effects of the anesthesia were wearing off, but something else stayed behind to cloud her thoughts. She breathed a little harder. Her heart pounded a little faster. She felt the air grow a little hotter around her cheeks. The surgical drugs and synthetic concoctions lingering in her system left her judgment in a stranglehold. The feelings slowly drifting in her mind were overwhelmed by the feelings surging in an elevated state deep below her stomach.

Her sense of awareness blurred until her thoughts were purely instinctive. Purely hormonal. Her emotions drifted away from how grateful she was for being in Yuuhi's arms, and drifted toward how much she wanted to push him straight to the floor of the boat and yank open his jeans and tear off her lab gown and…

Wait.

What the hell was she thinking? She blinked in shock as she came to grips with herself and the mysterious side effects wore off. She felt dizzy again as her brain told her endorphins to calm down.

"What did they do to me, Yuuhi?" she whispered in fear.

"I don't know. But we'll make them pay." Yuuhi held her tighter in his arms, burying his jaw in her black hair as he clenched his teeth.

She closed her drowsy eyes and nestled back under his chin. The boat continued speeding across the river and through a concrete canyon, taking its crew far away from the Mikage International complex after barely escaping Kagami's mad doctors. By all accounts Chidori should have been petrified in horror, overcome with grief, or dead. But in Yuuhi's arms, she had never felt more relieved.

* * *

 _Author's note: Did I trick ya?_


End file.
